Expanding digital skills, college readiness two goals in Oswego 308’s new strategic plan

Helping prepare students for the future by expanding digital skills, career exploration and college readiness is one of the goals in the Oswego School District 308‘s new three-year strategic plan.

The 2025-2028 plan was approved at the school board’s March 17 meeting. To help meet that goal, the district’s new K-12 digital literacy plan will teach media, AI and online safety skills.

“Career exploration will start earlier in elementary school and high school students will have more opportunities to earn college credit and gain real-world experience through career pathways and industry partnerships,” according to the plan. “The district will also review and update courses to match future job opportunities.”

Another goal in the plan calls for the district to assess school safety, address unfair gaps in opportunities and expand wellness resources for staff, including mental health and financial support. Creating a stronger, more student-focused learning environment across the district is another goal.

“This plan reflects a shared vision shaped through extensive input from our students, staff and from families and community members,” Oswego School District 308 Superintendent Andalib Khelghati said about the plan. “It’s a forward thinking guide...This guide really is what I would describe as a foundational document. Some of the things that have been articulated in this document, everything from the way in which we think about our individualized education plans to our curriculum renewal process to the way we think about student information and data, these are all fundamentally things that we have opportunities to improve.”

Board member Amy Murillo said the strategic plan is designed to be a “living document.”

“It’s not as we said, something that we are going to put on the wall and have a three-point strategic plan for the next three years,” she said. “It’s something that I hope we’re digging into at every meeting as we’re thinking about the work that’s ahead of us.”

Board President LaTonya Simelton said she is very confident the strategic plan is a reflection “of so many aspects of our community and so many voices.”

“I feel as though we are going in the right direction,” she said. “We have the focus, we have the intentionality and we have the meaningfulness behind it. And so I’m very proud of the community and the staff.”

The district covers about 68 square miles, with students not only in Oswego, but also Aurora, Joliet, Montgomery, Plainfield and Yorkville. Along with the new strategic plan, a master facility plan is being developed for the district.

At the Oct. 7 Oswego school board meeting, board members unanimously approved a $380,000 contract with Wight & Company to develop a master facility plan for the district.

“This is something that a school district should do periodically, I would venture to say probably every 10 years,” Raphael Obafemi, the district’s chief financial officer and chief school business official, told Oswego school board members in talking about the project at the Sept. 23 board meeting. “And as far as we know, we’ve never done this before. So this is an attempt to do what we believe is absolutely necessary for us to do.”

More information about the strategic plan is available at the district website.